I was incredibly busy from February to April; lots of school visits, World Book Day week events, four fab sessions at Paisley Book Festival and a lovely school assembly for Helensburgh Book Festival. As well as the school and festival events, I did six readings in the Great Hall at the wonderful Unicorn Weekend at Stirling Castle and  signed and chatted about Titanic all weekend at the Titanic Exhibition in Leeds

.Most thrilling of all, Ice Cream Boy was shortlisted for the Alexandra Palace Children’s Book Award and I had a whirlwind trip down to London for the award ceremony with the other shortlisted authors and 800 excited children.

I loved all of these happenings, but all the travelling was tiring and by the time the Easter holidays arrived I felt I’d lost my work/life/writing balance completely, and my overwhelming feelings were exhaustion and guilt. My dad’s dementia is worsening, his care needs are increasing and I felt I couldn’t continue being unavailable to help whenever I was needed.

So, I’ve made the decision that going forward, from June onwards, I’ll do school events on Wednesdays and Thursdays only, unless there are exceptional circumstances. On Tuesdays I’ll continue to look after my gorgeous granddaughter all day and on Fridays I’ll go to yoga (I missed nearly every class last term) and see friends for coffee and lunch. I’ll make Dad’s dinner and sit with him until his bedtime on Sunday and Wednesday evenings, plus take him out for lunch at the weekend and try and fit the gym in when I can. Last term was a total exercise fail and I need to do better!

You might have spotted a tiny issue by now. I’ve organised the events part and the family/friends part of my life. Where am I going to fit writing time into my life? It’s an excellent question, because I do need to prioritise writing.

Thankfully, Linnet and the Periwinkle Flyer is finished and is heading for the printers, and I am delighted with the way she looks. So grateful to Elise Carmichael who has created a stunning cover and to Tiny Tree Books for being so supportive.

Linnet and the Periwinkle Flyer is coming out on August the 21st this summer and I can’t wait to see it in print. I’ve been busy in May writing four short stories for a lovely environmental project with a local council…more about that soon hopefully!

So, some writing has been done.

But despite whizzing ahead with a brand new novel idea while on a writing retreat in Austria back in January, and getting mid-way through a first draft, I have been procrastinating since,  or maybe just genuinely haven’t had time!

To be honest, I think the answer to the question of “when will I get this book written?”  is the same as when I worked full-time as a primary teacher. The summer holidays will soon be here. School events will stop and I will get my head down and have a first draft written by the end of August. It WILL happen.

So, that’s me organised, in theory at least.

Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas break. I overdid the decorations as usual, but loved having a twinkly house and really miss all the sparkly lights now that they are back in the cupboard.

The freezing weather and long dark nights mean I often succumb to the January Blues but not this year. I am skin cancer-free, at least for now, and I have so much to look forward in the first months of 2025.

My second school reading book, The Last Zeppelin, another real-life story of survival after Terror on Titanic, is coming out with Badger Learning in January.

My story for 6-8 year olds, The Stargazers, is coming out as part of BBC Scotland’s Time for a Story series early this year and I am so looking forward to seeing the illustrations and listening to the added sound effects! Recording the story at the BBC Studios in Glasgow was great fun.

Phoebe misses out on playing in the snow, but a cloudless night sky is perfect for stargazing. Phoebe and her Gran decide to try and see the stars from her dark garden.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07jntrp/episodes/guide

In March I’m going to London to take part in the Alexandra Palace Children’s Book Awards, as Ice Cream Boy has been shortlisted and I’ve been invited to the big award ceremony. Ice Cream Boy has also been shortlisted for Peters Books Children’s Book of the Year and longlisted for the James Reckitt Hull Children’s Book Award which is totally thrilling. The novel is now also available as an audiobook, narrated by Angus King and is currently being reprinted. I am so proud of how well the book has been received.

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I’m looking forward to taking part in a couple of lovely book festivals in the spring too so it is shaping up to be an excellent few months.

Writing-wise, I took procrastination very seriously in 2024 and know that I need to get my head down and write a first draft of a new novel between January and April 2025, so it is back to the serious business of daily word counts and Written? Kitten! (You can choose puppies if you prefer -whatever positive reinforcement works)

https://writtenkitten.co/

There is also some very exciting book news hopefully coming soon, which I am bursting to talk about.

On a final, personal note, I am loving looking after my little granddaughter every Tuesday. We visit the library in Kirkintilloch often and this week had a fab afternoon out to the Riverside Museum in Glasgow where we spotted the perfect transport to take us home. Looking forward to lots more days out this spring!

It has been a good summer, work-wise. I’ve been involved in some lovely bookish events, including Marr College’s first Book Festival and The Big Book Show at the Mitchell Library.

It was a real thrill to be invited to Arran’s Wee Mac Book Festival, Falkirk High’s Literacy Celebration event, Gryffe Valley Book Festival and the Summer Reading Challenge launch event at Paisley Central Library too!  I attended some lovely bookish social events, like the Children’s Publishing Picnic, and did lots of school events, both in-person and virtual. I even did my first zoom to Australia in June!

The new term has got off to an excellent start. I’ve been doing a six-week block of creative writing sessions with a brilliant group of young writers at the Ginger Cat Bookshop.  Joyously, in September I was invited to the opening of two gorgeous new school libraries, at King’s Park Primary in Glasgow and King’s Oak Primary in Greenock.

Being a children’s author  really is the best job in the world and it has also been a lovely distraction from some tricky real-life issues. My dad is struggling now with dementia, although he’s pretty upbeat most of the time and is very happy to chat about Morrison shelters and the Clydebank Blitz. And I’ve had my own health issue, as a tiny, innocuous looking mole under my lip turned out to be another melanoma. I had a wide local excision in August and went to Birmingham  NEC two days later to sign copies of The Titanic Detective Agency at White Star Heritage’s excellent Titanic exhibition.

I was at the exhibition for the whole weekend and while I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to chat about Titanic to other enthusiasts, I felt very self-conscious about the state of my face!  Thankfully, my lip is healing nicely now, I’m crossing my fingers I won’t need more surgery and feel enormously grateful to the NHS staff for their care and kindness.

May was an exciting and slightly chaotic month!  Ice Cream Boy came out with Floris Books on the 16th. The virtual blog tour, organised by the fabulous Kelly Lacey, really added to the buzz and Ice Cream Boy got some thoughtful and detailed early reviews. Huge thanks to Kelly and to all the lovely bloggers who joined the tour.

The week before Ice Cream Boy’s launch,  I managed inadvertently to get myself in a social media spat with Matt Lucas, which got so out of hand it led to me being interviewed on Radio 5 Live and appearing in an article in the Independent newspaper.

The amount of attention it got felt a little overwhelming but I am glad my tweet started a very necessary conversation. The support from other children’s authors was amazing. Having said that, I’m not holding my breath that anything will change as a result.

A lot was said on social media during that week about writing quality and ghost writers, but I wasn’t actually complaining about the fact so many celebrities are creating children’s books. I was just feeling frustrated at the privilege of shelf space and marketing celebrity authors are offered. It isn’t a level playing field and to be honest, there have been times I’ve felt like my own books are so under the radar that maybe I should consider throwing in the towel.

But like Matt Lucas, I’ve taken time to reflect. Fame isn’t something I’d relish. Wealth would be nice, and my bills need to be paid, but most of my income as an author comes from visiting schools and libraries and that’s my favourite part of the job.  I’ve spent almost my entire working life encouraging young children to love stories and as a children’s author, inspiring kids to read and write for pleasure is still my main motivation. I know how lucky I am to be doing a job I love.

Ice Cream Boy’s launch was on the 30th and I am very grateful to everyone at Floris and to the staff at Waterstones Braehead for organising such a lovely event. There was ice cream and cake and lots of people came, which is always a big relief!

Now I just have to cross my fingers and hope that readers will enjoy Ice Cream Boy. Hopefully the weather will warm up and and an ice cream themed book will seem the perfect beach read this summer.

Yesterday, I found these scribbled notes , written in December 2021, and while they’re hard to read, I’m glad I wrote it all down and find the final few lines particularly interesting.

March 2020-lockdown- all school author visits cancelled. No paid work. Can’t write. Can’t focus. Horrendous anxiety about Covid, particularly as my daughter Sal is working in covid wards with rubbish PPE.
April-October 2020 Very anxious. doom scrolling constantly. Hair is falling out. pains in my side and insomnia. Scan shows gallstones. Sal gets Covid, is ill for three weeks and I can’t go and see her. Pain in side is getting more intense and often.
November-emergency 2020 op on necrotic gallbladder. Get out of hospital and have to go into isolation for 14 days as patient on ward had covid.
December- A & E in agony – MRi scan – small bile duct stones diagnosed. Quiet Christmas. Mum deteriorating badly. 
Jan- June 2021 helping to care for mum at home- final stages of dementia. School visits on zoom- 2 or 3 a week. Try and have two nights away in May and have to rush back as mum gets a UTI and is poorly.
July 3rd Mum dies. Ian has a heart attack same day. Organise funeral. Visit Ian in hospital. Feel totally shattered but get on with it.
Sept-Dec 2021 New book comes out {Secrets of the Last Merfolk} Trying to promote it, despite all the current barriers, and do school visits both virtual and in-person, start author in residence at Cumbrae Primary, start a new novel about dementia. Join a gym. start yoga and Spanish classes. Trying to get myself back together.

So, it’s now the 1st of May 2024. I still go to the gym three times a week and to my yoga class on Fridays. The Spanish classes ended but I’m still learning Spanish on Duolingo every day without fail. And reading those old notes gives me a real sense that I managed to get myself back together.

The new novel about dementia, Ice Cream Boy, is coming out this month and I am so excited and positive about getting it into the hands of young readers. I am even having a proper in-person launch with wine and cake, my first since 2019.
Ice Cream Boy is dedicated to my mum.